Agenda item

Report and presentation by Chief Superintendent Mike O’Hara, West Midlands Police

The Board considered a report and presentation of Chief Superintendent Mike O’Hara, West Midlands Police concerning youth violence in the city and the existing activity to address the problems. Rashid Bhayat, Chief Executive Officer, Positive Youth Foundation attended the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The report indicated that there was increasing concern and profile around youth violence in the city and, whilst lots of activity was already in place to address this, there was recognition that there was a need for a coordinated approach to tackling the issue. Coventry’s senior leaders had acknowledged that violence in the city should be approached as a public health issue, in that it had root causes, it could be treated, but most importantly it could be prevented.

The drivers of violence were identified as poverty, deprivation, substance misuse, adverse childhood experiences, mental health issues, urban environments, organised crime, county lines and having a large population of young people. To make an impact on violence over the long term all these factors needed to be addressed by taking a systematic ‘public health approach’. Data and intelligence was to be used to assess the scope of the problem, identifying who was at risk and what common risk factors they shared to inform evidence based approaches over the short, medium and long term.

A Violence Summit for city leaders was held at the end of January, focused around identifying root causes, key priorities and resources, and laying the foundations for follow-up work to further develop and operationalise these. The Board were informed that further events were planned to engage the voluntary sector and the local community.

The presentation provided information on the figures for national and West Midlands violent crime for 2010-2018, and regional and violent crime and knife crime for 2002 to 2019, which showed that violence was continuing to increase. The Board were informed that it was children and young people who were particularly at risk.

Attention was drawn to the ongoing good work currently being carried out to tackle violence, including violence prevention activity. The board noted that there was a good foundation in this area but it wasn’t particularly clear, co-ordinated or focused. Reference was made to the police response and the broader developing partnership response.

The presentation concluded with the proposed partnership next steps which included the development of a City Strategy on Youth Violence with a public health approach throughout. It was proposed to establish a partnership governance structure and monitoring framework with the setting up of a Youth Violence Reduction Board. 

Members raised a number of issues in response to the presentation, matters raised included:

·  What would success look like

·  The importance of having measurable goals

·  An explanation as to the peaks and troughs in violent crime and the impact of austerity

·  Support for the City Strategy on Youth Violence

·  The importance of moving on with the here and now, not just waiting for a finalised strategy

·  An acknowledgment of the strong supportive partnership approach committed to dealing with the issues concerning young people and violence

·  The importance of ensuring the young people have aspirations and job opportunities allowing them to have positive choices to make about their futures

·  What was being done to address the issue in collaboration with neighbouring forces and at a regional level

·  An acknowledgement of the Board’s role: that prevention and breaking the cycle of youth violence sits within the remit of the Board, particularly as solutions require a cross cutting approach, for example mental health, domestic abuse and parenting support

RESOLVED that:

(1) The proposed approach to tackling young people and violence by developing a strategy, taking a public health approach and establishing a partnership, governance structure and monitoring framework be endorsed and supported.

(2) Officers be requested to give further consideration to the governance arrangements, with particular reference to the Youth Violence Reduction Board.

(3) Further reports be submitted to future meetings of the Board as appropriate.